Saving Seafood

New Pacific Fishery Management Council Members Appointed

July 1, 2016 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

PORTLAND, Ore. — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the appointment of Marc Gorelnik of California and the reappointment of Herb Pollard, of Idaho, to the Pacific Fishery Management Council on Monday. Nominations were submitted by the governors of the two states and approved by the Secretary. The appointments go into effect on August 11.

Mr. Gorelnik, a trademark and copyright attorney, will fill the California at-large seat on the Council, replacing Mr. Dan Wolford. Mr. Gorelnik received a J.D. from the King Hall School of Law at UC Davis in 1993. Prior to entering the field of law, he was a project engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company’s Santa Barbara Research Center, and earned degrees in physics and scientific instrumentation from UC Santa Barbara. He currently lives in northern California and has worked on fishery issues on behalf of California recreational anglers for several years. Mr. Gorelnik currently serves on the Council’s Salmon Advisory Subpanel, which advises the Council on decisions that affect commercial and recreational salmon fisheries. He is Chairman of the Coastside Fishing Club and is a member of the Coastal Conservation Association and the Golden Gate Salmon Association.

Mr. Pollard currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Council and will begin serving as Chair in August. He is currently serving his second term representing the Idaho Obligatory seat. Mr. Pollard was born in Lakeview, Oregon, and spent his early life in Lakeview and Klamath Falls, graduating from Lakeview High School in 1962. He attended University of Oregon for two years, before transferring to Oregon State University where he graduated with a BS Degree in Fisheries Science in 1967. Herb earned an MS in Fisheries Management from University of Idaho in 1969, and immediately started work for Idaho Department of Fish and Game as a Fishery Research Biologist. After a 28 year career with IDFG, including stints as Regional and State Fishery Manager, Anadromous Fishery Coordinator, and Regional Supervisor, he spent 10 years with NOAA Fisheries, dealing with Endangered Species Act consultations and regulations regarding fishery management, fish hatcheries, and harvest issues that impact listed salmon and steelhead in the Snake and Columbia River basins. Currently Mr. Pollard is working as an independent contractor consulting on fishery management issues. In addition to a professional career as a Fishery Biologist, he is an avid and expert recreational angler and has written and spoken extensively about recreational fishing.

Federal lawsuit over at-sea monitoring still a go

June 29, 2016 — Fishermen opposing the cost-shift of at-sea monitoring say they are moving forward with a federal lawsuit despite the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concession that it will help pay for the cost of the monitors for New England fishermen.

The at-sea monitoring program analyzes the fishing area, as well as the catch and gear type, in order to monitor sector quotas. The Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the research arm of NOAA Fisheries, is required to collect scientific, management, regulatory compliance and economic data for fisheries.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

U.S. Commerce Department announces 2016 regional fishery council appointments

June 28, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

The U.S. Commerce Department today announced the appointment of 19 new and returning members to the eight regional fishery management councils that partner with NOAA Fisheries to manage ocean fish stocks. One at-large seat on the Mid-Atlantic Council will be announced by the Secretary at a later date. The new and reappointed council members begin their three-year terms on August 11.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act established the councils to prepare fishery management plans for their regions. NOAA Fisheries works closely with the councils through this process and then reviews, approves and implements the plans. Council members represent diverse groups, including commercial and recreational fishing industries, environmental organizations and academia. They are vital to fulfilling the act’s requirements to end overfishing, rebuild fish stocks and manage them sustainably.

“U.S. fisheries are among the most sustainable in the world, and NOAA Fisheries is grateful for the efforts these individuals devote to our nation’s fisheries management and to the resiliency of our oceans. We look forward to working with both new and returning council members,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries. “Each council faces unique challenges, and their partnership with NOAA Fisheries is integral to the sustainability of the fisheries in their respective regions, as well as to the communities that rely on those fisheries.”

Each year, the Secretary of Commerce appoints approximately one-third of the total 72 appointed members to the eight regional councils. The Secretary selects members from nominations submitted by the governors of fishing states, territories and tribal governments.

Read the full release and list of council appointments

Sens. Collins, King Applaud Funding to Help Reimburse Maine Fisherman for At-Sea Monitoring Program

June 27, 2016 — WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King today welcomed an announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that it will fund an estimated 85 percent of the sea days needed for the At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) Program for the current fishing year. Beginning July 1, groundfish fishermen covered by the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan will be reimbursed for their at-sea monitoring costs through an arrangement with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

“The At-Sea Monitoring Program is an important tool that helps us to responsibly manage Maine’s critical ocean resources,” Senators Collins and King said in a joint statement. “Maine’s hardworking fishermen shouldn’t bear an unfair financial burden in supporting the ASM program. We applaud NOAA for stepping up to help reimburse our fishermen, and will continue to fight for the Maine groundfish industry moving forward.”

Read the full press release at the newsroom of Sen. Collins

Fishermen vow to continue lawsuit about monitoring rules

June 27, 2016 — CONCORD, N.H. — Attorneys for fishermen who oppose a new cost imposed by regulators say they will continue with a federal lawsuit despite a recent concession by the federal government.

The lawsuit concerns the cost of at-sea fishing monitors, who are workers hired to collect data that inform catch quotas. The government shifted the cost of paying for monitors from itself to fishermen earlier this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said recently that fishing trips on or after July 1 may be eligible for reimbursement of monitoring costs.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

Carlos Rafael’s Trial Puts One-Fifth of New Bedford’s Fishing Fleet, $80 Million in Permits at Stake

June 27, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Indicted fishing magnate Carlos Rafael controls nearly one-fifth of the harbor’s commercial fleet and had permits worth about $80 million last year, according to public records and local interviews.

He also has a fondness for Greek mythology.

Commercial fishing boats named Zeus, Hera, Hera II, Apollo, Athena, Poseidon, Hercules and Titan all are part of Rafael’s fleet. Many of his boats are painted with distinctive green-and-white coloring that makes them easily recognizable on local docks, such as Leonard’s Wharf, where the Sasha Lee – named after one of his daughters – and other of his vessels often float, behind the Waterfront Grille.

Boat names also honor Rafael’s native Portugal, and Cape Verde to the south. Those vessels include the Ilha Brava, after Brava Island in Cape Verde; Açores, for the Azores archipelago; Perola do Corvo, or “Pearl of Corvo,” after the smallest island in the Azores; Ilha do Corvo, for that island itself; and others.

The size and scope of Rafael’s fishing business indicate a significant chunk of New Bedford’s waterfront economy could be at stake should Rafael stand trial in January 2017. He faces federal charges tied to an alleged, multi-year scheme involving illegally caught fish, bags of cash from a wholesale buyer in New York City and a smuggling operation to Portugal, via Logan International Airport in Boston.

An initial survey of Rafael’s fishing permits, vessels and the corporations behind them, along with local data and interviews, provides a glimpse into an operation that has become a flashpoint for broader debates about industry regulation and oversight.

According to 2016 vessel permit data from NOAA Fisheries, for its Greater Atlantic Region, Rafael and his wife, Conceicao Rafael, control at least 36 local vessels with commercial fishing permits this year. Those vessels include a handful of skiffs or smaller boats, but all have permits for at least 10 species of fish, ranging from American lobster to Atlantic deep sea red crab, surf clam, monkfish and more.

Twelve of the Rafaels’ local vessels have high-value, limited-access scallop permits, according to the data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The values of those permits amount to tens of millions of dollars, making their future a vital question for the waterfront.

Rafael, a 64-year-old Dartmouth resident, faces 27 counts on federal charges including conspiracy, false entries and bulk cash smuggling, according to his indictment, filed last month.

Nothing about his trial next year is certain, including outcomes or penalties. Whether the waterfront could face the loss or seizure of any of Rafael’s boats, permits or properties is an open question, and will remain so until the case is resolved. Even whether the case actually goes to trial is uncertain, to a degree.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

US offers fishermen help in paying monitors

June 24, 2016 — Over the past year, the region’s groundfishermen have argued that the federal government was jeopardizing their livelihoods by forcing them to pay for a controversial program that requires government-trained monitors to observe their catch.

On Thursday, after months of heated debates with fishermen, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they have found money to cover most of the observer costs for the rest of the fishing year.

NOAA officials said that a contractor they hired to place observers aboard fishing vessels failed to do so for about one-third of the total number of days that they were expected to accompany fishermen to sea. As a result, NOAA has enough money to cover an estimated 85 percent of the rest of the so-called at-sea monitoring program.

“That’s an estimate because it depends on how much fishing occurs over the year,” said Samuel D. Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs at NOAA Fisheries.

Groups representing groundfishermen, who have been required since March to pay hundreds of dollars every time an observer accompanies them to sea, have argued that the costs were too much to bear and would put many of them out of business. NOAA estimates it costs $710 every time an observer joins them, though most fishermen have negotiated lower fees.

But many groundfishermen, who catch cod, flounder, and other bottom-dwelling fish, have already been suffering from major quota cuts. NOAA last year, for example, cut the region’s cod quota by 75 percent.

“This will definitely lessen the economic burden on small, family-owned fishing businesses, and will allow time to address many logistical issues that have surfaced since industry payments began,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, an advocacy group for groundfishermen in Gloucester.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

NOAA To Reimburse 85 Percent Of Costs For Fishing Monitors

June 24, 2016 — The following is excerpted from a story published yesterday by the Gloucester Times:

NOAA Fisheries today said it will reimburse Northeast groundfishermen an estimated 85 percent of the 2016 sea days needed for at-sea monitoring, alleviating if only temporarily the burden of fishermen assuming the costs of the observer program.

In a reversal of its previous stance and statements, NOAA said any groundfish sector trip beginning on or after July 1 may be eligible for the reimbursement of at-sea monitoring costs through a program the federal fisheries regulator is developing with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The agency also stressed the reimbursement program is temporary and unlikely to last beyond the 2016 fishing season but “preserves the the contract relationships sectors already have in place” with third-party at-sea monitoring providers.

Federal groundfish permit holders absorbed the costs of at-sea monitoring — estimated at an average of $710 per day per vessel —  on March 1 after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had exhausted the funds budgeted for that program.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

The Garden State Seafood Association strongly opposes the “Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016”

June 23, 2016 — The following was released by the Garden State Seafood Association:

Finning of sharks (the process of removing fins at sea and discarding the shark) is currently illegal in the U.S. and Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) supports that law. The Shark Conservation Act of 2010 (SCA) prohibits any person from removing any of the fins of a shark at sea and discarding its body. The GSSA supports this law and existing associated exemptions for spiny dogfish and smooth dogfish sharks.

However, there is a direct federal allowance for the sale and possession of legally-harvested shark fins regulated and supported by NOAA, the U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration. Any effort to overturn this allowance at the federal level is simply not based on fact.

The “Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016” makes it illegal to sell the fins from legally-harvested shark species, including all large coastal sharks, Threshers and Mako. One result of this requirement may include the fins of these sharks being removed on shore after harvest and needlessly thrown away.

This legislation represents a shameful waste of food and results in decreased revenues to New Jersey fishermen and their families. It will harm commercial fisherman, their families, and coastal communities around the Nation who participate in legal shark fisheries. And since sharks are already sustainably managed by NOAA, the legislation adds no conservation benefit to shark resources.

U.S. fisheries management has a strong conservation ethic with respect to our shark fisheries. The sharks we harvest are sustainably managed by NOAA, the meat is consumed throughout the U.S. and around the world, and the fins associated with these legally-harvested sharks are desired by overseas markets for their food and cultural significance.

Support U.S. fishermen and U.S fisheries management by OPPOSING the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2016

Read the release as a PDF

About the Garden State Seafood Association:

The GSSA is comprised of commercial fishermen, shore-based seafood processors, commercial dock facilities, seafood markets and restaurants, and various NJ-based commercial fishing industry support businesses. The GSSA membership represents every major port in the State, harvesting approximately $100 million dollars worth of seafood products annually, supporting 2000 jobs, and contributing significantly to the coastal economy of the State of New Jersey.

Northeast Fishery Observer Sea-Day Schedule Posted, Short-Term Reimbursement for Groundfish At-Sea Monitoring Available July 1

June 23, 2016 — The following was released by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center:

Today NOAA Fisheries published the 2016 Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology Annual Discard Report with Observer Sea Day Allocation and the resulting final 2016 sea-day schedule for our Northeast Fishery Observer Program.

This year we are able to fully fund our SBRM monitoring program and will use remaining funds to offset some of industry’s costs of the groundfish at-sea monitoring program.

Any sector trip beginning on or after July 1 may be eligible for reimbursement of at-sea monitoring costs though a program we are developing with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Because this support is not likely to last for the entire year, this method preserves the contract relationships sectors already have in place with at-sea monitor providers.